X is for Xeriscape

 

April marks the 15th anniversary of my blog, so during the A-Z blogging challenge, I will be sharing previous posts from over 2,100 I have written.

I didn't have much to choose from for the letter X from previous years. Here's one on xeriscaping that I did for the letter X during the A-Z Challenge in April 2021. Just in case you're not familiar with the term, xeriscaping is a gardening method that conserves water.

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X is for Xeriscape Vegetable Gardening

Fig trees like dry feet, so they would be good for xericaping.
(I know. Figs are a fruit, not a vegetable.)

 If someone had asked me if xeriscaping was compatible with vegetable gardening, I would have said no, at least not for the vegetables I'm familiar with. I would have been wrong. There are some vegetables that will do okay without lots of water. With a bit of poking around, I found information that will be useful to me while gardening here, even though, on paper, we have adequate rainfall. The problem is it's all an average, and we usually have a long dry spell at some point in the summer. Here are a few tips I learned about growing vegetables without much water.

Miss Lander's oregano

--There are many herbs that do well in dry conditions. Oregano, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, and lavender are some of them. Currently, I am not growing any herbs, but I have had good luck with oregano, rosemary, and lavender in the past. They thrived in the "plant and forget" environment I provided for them.

--Plant vegetables that mature quickly, so they will be ready before the long dry part of summer arrives. Good ones for this are radishes, broccoli, cauliflower, leaf lettuce, and beets. I have all of these growing now. I got them in earlier than last year, so maybe I will have a better yield before the warmer, drier weather sets in.

Miss Lander's sweet potatoes

--Okra, sweet potatoes, and muskmelon do well in drought. I won't be growing any of these since they're not my favorite.

 --Raised beds and/or well-tilled soil allow roots to grow deeper, so the plant will be less affected by no rain. We put in raised beds last year and tilled the soil below them before we filled them. The soil in them is a big improvement over the native rocky soil.

 --Mulching is a good way to retain moisture. We mostly use straw for this, and we have some leftover from last year.

 --Legumes do not need as much water as many vegetables. We're growing peas now, but not sure we will have room for any of the warmer weather ones. 

--Install a rain barrel to collect water to use later. Ward installed a rain barrel last year for my birthday. It has been very handy this spring for watering the new plants.

So how about that? I am already doing some of the things recommended for xeriscape gardening. I was just doing them to make things easier.

How much rainfall do you have where you live? What do you do about watering plants?

Sources:

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/special/xeriscape/integrating-vegetables-and-herbs-into-the-xeriscape-garden.htm

https://www.rainharvest.com/blog/?p=474

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeriscaping#:~:text=Xeriscaping%20is%20the%20process%20of,eliminates%20the%20need%20for%20irrigation.&text=In%20some%20areas%2C%20terms%20such,smart%20scaping%20are%20used%20instead.

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Until next time...

W is for Wally Makes Soup

  April marks the 15th anniversary of my blog, so during the A-Z blogging challenge, I will be sharing previous posts from over 2,000 I have written.

I'm not into cooking, so recipes or food discussions are not a common feature on my blog. However, I do publish a recipe from time to time. Here is a post about a potato and ham soup that Wally made. This was originally published in March 2012.

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Wally Makes Soup

Wally likes to eat. No, let me correct that. Wally loves to eat. However, he doesn't like to cook. But today, he did just that. I asked him to help me with some potato soup by peeling the potatoes. One thing led to another, and in less than an hour, he had created a delicious potato ham soup.

True to the family tradition, he didn't follow a recipe. He looked at a couple of recipes, took inventory of ingredients on hand, and started cooking. For better nutrition, he added carrots and used low-fat cream cheese. He didn't use onions as a favor to Ward, and he added his own special optional ingredient at the end--Stubb's Spicy BBQ Sauce. The result was a very delicious soup that reminded me of scalloped potatoes with ham. I hope this successful cooking adventure is the beginning of a new trend.

Below are basic instructions for making the soup. Detailed recipe at the end.

Chop potatoes, celery, carrots, and ham.

Sauté celery, carrots, and garlic, then add potatoes and water. Cook until veggies are tender. Add cream cheese and ham.                                     

Garnish with cheddar cheese and/or Stubb's Spicy BBQ sauce. Serve and enjoy!

Wally's Potato Ham Soup

Ingredients:

Oil, 1 T

Celery, 2 stalks chopped

Carrots, 3 large chopped

Garlic, 3 cloves minced

Potatoes, 7 medium--5-6 cups chopped

Water, 4 ½ cups

Chicken bouillon cubes, 2

Low-fat cream cheese, 8 oz, softened and cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes

Ham, 2 cups chopped (¾ lb)

For garnish:

Shredded cheddar cheese

Stubb's BBQ Sauce, 1 teaspoon/bowl

Sauté celery, carrots, and garlic in oil until celery starts to soften.

Add potatoes, water, and bouillon cubes. Bring to a boil and boil until vegetables are tender. Approximately 10- 15 minutes.

Lower heat or turn off heat on electric range and add cream cheese. Stir until melted.

Stir in ham.

Note: I added a little of Stubb's spicy BBQ sauce into my bowl. It gave the soup just a hint of spicy hotness without overwhelming the other flavors.

My mom and dad just put a little shredded cheese on theirs.

Everyone was happy. I hope you like it too.

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Until next time...

V is for Velleity

 

April marks the 15th anniversary of my blog, so during the A-Z blogging challenge, I will be sharing previous posts from over 2,100 I have written.

Here is another repost from an A-Z Challenge in 2015. I could add a lot more to the list if I were writing this today. 😀

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V is for Velleity

You know how they say if you are really going to learn a new word, you need to use it. Well, a couple of years ago, I learned velleity, a new-to-me word that I thought was great. I could see using it on a daily basis. However, that never seemed to happen after the first week, and I forgot it until recently. So I'm going to take a stab at it again.
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Velleity 

Velleity---a noun that means to have a wish or desire to do something, but you are not interested in it enough to act on it.

--My desire to revamp the look of my blog was more of a velleity than a real plan.

--Velleity is what keeps me from cleaning up the pile on the bed in the guest room.

Can you think of a way you could use velleity in a sentence?

But wait, there's more.

Here's how you say velleity.
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Until next time...

U is for Use it Up

 

April marks the 15th anniversary of my blog, so during the A-Z blogging challenge, I will be sharing previous posts from over 2,100 I have written.

I did the post below for the 2022 A-Z Challenge. I had forgotten the details of it, so maybe you have, too. Here it is.

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This is a cross-stitch that I did several years ago. I selected it because I liked the saying and the flower detail around the edges. Recently, I began to wonder about the origin of the saying. After a bit of Googling, Barry Popik, who studies the origins of words, enlightened me.

The saying is thought to be a New England proverb seen in print as early as 1933. Earlier versions of the saying were “Eat it up, wear it out, make it do,” and it was widely used during the Great Depression. However, the War Advertising Council modified it and used the saying during World War II to promote the conservation of resources to help the war effort. During this campaign, the wording was changed to "Use it up, wear it out, Make it do, Do without." 

It has been used since then by frugal and environmentally-minded people everywhere. Do you ever quote this saying?

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Until next time...

T is for Today

 

April marks the 15th anniversary of my blog, so during the A-Z blogging challenge, I will be sharing previous posts from over 2,100 I have written.

Through the years, I have occasionally written a Today post. In these posts, I have a picture I have taken, along with reminders of ways I want to live my life better. I liked looking back through these, and I think I should make it a practice again. Below are a few of my Today posts.

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Today, I am going to think about the things outside of me that are gradually affecting my life.

This is part of Wally and Theodore's tree house that Ward built years ago. As you can see, the tree is slowly growing around one of the supports and has pushed up a floorboard. I need to think about whether or not I have a "tree" slowly changing me. Am I letting outside forces determine where I'm going and where I'm going to end up? I'm not sure, but I do know that if I don't think about it, they very well might.

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Today I am going to be organized

 and not run around in circles.

Some days are more productive than others, and it usually involves being organized and having a plan. I have a plan, so I am not going to get dizzy trying to get things done today.

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Today I am going to stand out from the background.

Six-spotted Green Tiger Beetle

Some days it is easier to just go with the flow, but today I am going to put forth the extra effort to stand out from my status quo. I'm going to do that by trying something out of my comfort zone. So many things to choose from...

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Today I am going to step back and look at things from a distance.

Sometimes I get too caught up in the details and forget the big picture. Today, I am going to look from a distance so I can get a new perspective on things.

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Until next time...